Custom Built Mannlicher-Schoenauer Rifle with Leupold VX-3 scope. All photos by Rocky Hays.

The Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifle that is the subject of this article was custom built by Rocky Hays, our Gunsmith Editor, for a long-time Guns and Shooting Online
subscriber. The project took over two years to complete and the rifle is now with its owner in Europe.

There are good, reliable, mass-produced guns available that
are suitable for anything one could reasonably ask of them. The staff of Guns and Shooting Online, for example,
have reviewed a vast array. Why do so many of us desire to own a custom made gun? The
answer boils down to two things: Uniqueness and Art.

We have the opportunity to talk to a lot of
firearms-oriented people. One of the things we often hear is this little story:
"I have a 'custom' 1911 pistol (or Ruger 10/22, AR, etc.). It has a __
brand barrel, a __ brand trigger, a __ brand stock, __ brand springs, etc, etc.
The truth is these are not custom-made guns! They are personalized guns. There
are catalogs available with thousands of parts for mass-produced guns. Most of
these parts are owner-installable with little, or no, gunsmithing required. In
this situation, 100 people could order the same parts and build the exact same
personalized gun. This is not a bad thing; these after-market parts are
intended to improve a gun’s performance and/or appearance. However, a custom made
gun they do not make.

What exactly makes a custom gun, like this 6.5x54mm
Mannlicher-Schoenauer that Rocky just finished? It goes back to those two words,
Uniqueness and Art. There is not one single part in this rifle that can be
ordered from a catalog or over the counter, including the screws. That alone
makes this gun unique. In addition, Rocky will never build another one like it.
This design belongs to the owner of the gun and the design is the product of
the owner’s artistic taste and functional desires. The owner chose the style
and pattern of engraving, the shape of the stock, the metal finishes, etc. It
is truly a unique piece of firearms art that was built to fit the owner.

Rocky was contacted over two years ago by a customer in Europe about building a 6.5x54mm
Mannlicher-Schoenauer hunting rifle. At first, he turned the job down, citing
problems that he didn’t want to deal with. However, the prospective owner was
persistent and solved several of the initial problems himself, including
finding a starter gun with a suitable action. The owner also selected a walnut stock blank
and had it sent to Rocky from Europe.

After months of discussion and before any work had begun, Rocky and the owner put together a written plan for the
new rifle. Included in the plan, for example, were these requirements for the stock: European style cheek piece (the owner had another rifle with a
cheek piece that he especially liked and asked to have the same style on
the new gun), metal skeleton butt plate curled over the toe and heel of the
stock, metal skeleton grip cap linked to the trigger guard, 2-screw inletted
sling swivel bases, straight-cut ebony forend tip, enameled and inletted oval
shield with initials, 26 lpi wrap-around field-point checkering, owner specified
length of pull, hand-rubbed oil finish.

The customer wanted a Mannlicher-Schoenauer-based sporting rifle for European and African hunting. (The 6.5x54mm M-S is a classic European Alpine and African plains game cartridge.) The action for this beautiful, custom-built sporter came from a Mannlicher-Schoenauer 1930 System military rifle. These rifles were produced from 1903 to the 1930’s for the Greek Army. In the United States, they are scarce.

The receiver had military stripper clip ears, which were removed and the receiver welded and
configured to civilian specifications. All of the doner rifle's parts,
except for the basic receiver, bolt and Schoenauer rotary magazine, were
discarded. The wing safety on the bolt was changed to a thumb button
on the bolt to accommodate scope mounting. EAW quick detachable scope rings and
bases were installed on a hand made rear cantilever. The military bolt handle
was removed and replaced by a hand-forged, butter knife bolt handle. The bottom
of the new bolt handle was hand-checkered at 26 lpi (same lpi as the stock). The
side of the receiver was relieved to accept the lowered bolt handle. The bolt
was lapped to the receiver and the receiver faced to accept the 22" Douglas
XX 6.5mm barrel, chambered and throated specifically for 6.5x54 cartridges
using the Woodleigh Weldcore 160 grain bullet. A European walnut stock blank, chosen
by the customer, was shaped to the customer's specifications. The barreled action was hand-inletted to the
stock and the receiver was pillar-bedded. The barrel was free-floated, with the barrel to forend gap held to a tight clearance of 0.010".

A hand-made, single-set
inertia trigger and sear mechanism were installed. To accommodate the new
trigger and sear, the sear-to-bolt engagement was reconfigured. A hand-forged,
beaded trigger guard with a tang extending all the way to the grip cap was
fitted. The grip cap is a hand-forged, skeleton type and the central walnut is
checkered. The butt plate is also a hand-forged, skeleton type that curls over the
butt stock's heel and toe. Again, the revealed central wood is checkered. Hand
made, two-screw sling swivel bases were fabricated with stops so the sling
swivel cannot hit the wood. There are NO over-the-counter parts on this
gun; even the screws were hand-made and, of course, timed (aligned).

At the owner's request, all
of the original M-S markings on receiver were inlaid in copper. The skeleton grip
cap and butt plate are also outlined by subdued copper inlays. The receiver,
trigger guard and magazine floor plate are engraved in a modified English rose
and scroll pattern. The magazine floor plate is inlaid in gold, silver and copper.

The finishes are Royal hot salt bluing on the barrel, scope bases and rings with color case hardening for
the sling bases, magazine bottom, trigger guard, skeleton grip cap and butt plate. The bolt and trigger are heat-treated, medium phosphorous nickel-plated.
The original plan called for the receiver to be color case hardened, but Rocky discovered that, because of the metallurgy of the
receiver, this could not be done and still have a safe action. Therefore, the receiver was cold rust blued with the customer's consent.

A Leupold VX-3 2.5-8x36mm scope was chosen to complement both the rifle and the cartridge for which it is chambered. Leupold is, by far, the scope brand most commonly chosen for bespoke rifles and the VX-3 2.5-8x36 is, perhaps, Leupold's most useful and versatile hunting scope. Practically everyone on the Guns and Shooting Online staff owns one or more of these scopes and can attest to its quality, durability and versatility.

During the building of the rifle, two changes had to be made to the original specification: the aforementioned cold rust bluing of the receiver and deleting the (planned) iron sights. The original intention to
fit the latter was the reason for using quick detachable scope bases. Changes were made to the shape of the receiver; the thinned bolt handle and low rear scope mount cantilever were intended to lower the iron sights as close to the bore as possible. However, after a trial peep sight was latched to the rear
scope base, the required front sight was 1-1/2 inches above the centerline of the barrel. A
ramped sight of this height would have been aesthetically unpleasant, so the iron
sights were deleted. This turned out to be a Catch 22 situation in that
the quick detach bases themselves added nearly ˝ inch to the elevation of the
scope and the front ramp. Sometimes, the gun itself will dictate how it has to be built.

The customer requested hand loads
using Woodleigh 160 grain Weldcore and Barnes 130 grain TSX bullets. When I do
load development, I blueprint each case, uniform the primer pocket and flash
hole, re-size and trim to length. I take portable loading equipment to the
range, so I can load one round and shoot it. That way, the barrel is
always cold when fired. In addition, if I have an unacceptable load, I
don't have others like it. I shoot from a bench rest using a Lead Sled and
try to hold the gun the same way for each shot. I record weather data and chronograph
every shot. The idea is to remove all possible human and weather-induced variables.

I found one line of load data
for IMR 4350 powder in an old reloading manual to use as a starting
point. 36.8 grains was supposed to yield 2100 feet per second (fps) for
the 140 grain bullet and 34.0 grains was supposed to yield 1900 fps for the 160
grain bullet.

The first load tried in the
new rifle used 36 grains of Hodgdon 4350 powder and a 130 grain Barnes TSX
bullet. Winchester primers and new Norma brass were used for all loads. The
chronographed velocity was 2636 fps 10' from the muzzle. The fired primer
showed signs of slight cratering, so experimenting with this load was discontinued.

The second load I tried was
34 grains of Hodgdon 4350 with a 156 grain Norma bullet. This chronographed at
2555 fps and showed the same slight primer cratering. Again, testing was
stopped. I concluded that the old load data was essentially useless with modern
bullets and powders in this rifle.

I reduced the minimum load to
32 grains of H4350 and fired 30 test rounds. I switched to Accurate 4350, which
lowered the muzzle velocity by about 200 fps. The average 100 yard group
size was 2-1/2" with either 4350 powder, which I regarded as
unsatisfactory for this rifle.

I then tried IMR 3031 powder.
This yielded an appropriate muzzle velocity of 2124 fps with the 156 grain
Norma bullet and a 1-5/16" group size. Better accuracy, but still not what
I was looking for.

I moved on to IMR 4895
powder. 28.8 grains yielded a 1", five shot group. IMR 4895 clearly
agreed with this rifle. It should be noted that the maximum load with IMR 4895,
according to the reloading manual, is 34 grains. I exceeded that muzzle
velocity by 100 fps with 30 grains of powder.

The following trip to the range was to develop a hunting load using IMR 4895 powder. I used Woodleigh Weldcore
160 grain bullets and Winchester WLR primers. The results were as follows:

powder (gr)velocity (fps)avg. 100 yd. groupstd.
deviation

28.62043 1-1/16" 217

28.8
2110
1"
107

29
2181
3/4" 69

29.2
2219
3/4" 104

29.4
2251
1"
207

29.6
2278
1-1/8"
125

29.8
2302
1"
114

30
2323
1-1/4"
181

The next range day was devoted to the Barnes 130 grain TSX bullet, with IMR 4895 and Winchester WLR primers:

powder (gr)velocity
(fps)avg.
100 yd. groupstd.
deviation

29.8
2094
fps 1-3/4"
69

30
2145 1-3/4"
71

30.2
2186 1-1/2"
57

30.4
2194
15/16"
62

30.6
2115
15/16"
53

30.8
2232 5/8" 14

31
2260
3/4" 64

31.2
2289 1-1/2" 87

31.4
2330 2-3/4" 106

It became obvious that
pushing the 130 grain bullet much over 2260 fps in this barrel degraded the accuracy,
perhaps due to the 1:8" twist. By the end of the third day at
the range, I had fired nearly 250 rounds and had developed sufficient loading
data for each of the requested bullets. The targets indicated I could
switch between the 130 grain and 160 grain bullets without re-adjusting the scope.

Next, I loaded more of the
selected loads with 130 and 160 grain bullets and shot both bullet weights at
the same target to form a composite group. The 130 grain bullets produced
a group that was centered 7/8" high and right from the bull's eye. The
160 grain group was centered 9/16" low and left from the bull's eye, which
means that there was only about 1-1/2" between the centers of impact of
the two bullet weights. Compared to the size of a big game animal, this is
negligible.

Conclusion

If you are interested in ordering a custom made gun, or
would just like to see some of the world’s best custom firearms and meet the
builders, take a trip to Reno, Nevada in January. Every year, the Firearm
Engravers Guild of America and the American Custom Gun Makers Guild hold a combined
three day show. I strongly recommend that every gun enthusiast go to this show
at least once. You will see some amazing firearms up close and in person.

If you attend the Reno show, or in some other way choose a
custom gun builder, the first thing to know is that most members of FEGA and
ACGG do not consider themselves just "gun makers." They are artists
and guns are their medium. Second, you will need to be patient. Most of them
will not be able to give you a firm completion date. I know of builders who
have sent customers’ guns back, unfinished, because the customers became too impatient.

Understand that there are several types of gun makers. One
is the gunsmith specialist, who makes the mechanics of the gun--the metal
parts. Some of them specialize in only one type of action, such as Mauser 98,
Winchester 70, etc. Then those action parts are sent to an engraver for design
and engraving, to a stock maker/checkerer and then to a metal finisher. The
finished parts go back to the original gunsmith, who assembles the gun. The
customer can choose an engraver, stock maker and finisher whose style he likes.
You end up with a gun that has several names associated
with the finished firearm. Things will usually move faster than if the
gun is built and finished entirely by one person.

At the other end of the spectrum are gun makers like Rocky.
He is an engraver, machinist, woodworker and metal finisher. When a gun comes
into his shop, it almost never leaves until it is finished. You will find that
if you choose a gun maker like Rocky, things will move slowly. Rocky has no
employees and works entirely alone.

If you are going to have a custom rifle made, the details for every part of the gun should be determined
in consultation with the builder. This includes, but is not limited to, the
barrel (length, brand, contour, twist and crown), action (type, brand and
details), trigger, stock (material, grade, checkering style and coverage, butt
plate/recoil pad, dimensions, etc.), all finishes and accessories.

Commissioning a custom gun is literally participating in the
design and construction of your own, functional, work of art. It takes a lot of
time, effort and decision making to produce a true custom-built gun, but the
finished firearm is all yours. It is unique and, as you can tell from the
photos accompanying this article, worth the wait.

In closing, we would like to reiterate that the rifle that is the subject of this article was not built to sit in a display case. It was built for hunting and will soon be on safari in Africa. It is not only beautiful, it is completely functional and superior, for the owner's purpose, to any mass produced rifle. It fits him perfectly and mounts quickly, to speed that first, all important shot. It has a superior trigger tuned to the owner's specification and a very smooth, controlled feed action with a rotary magazine for maximum reliability. It is very accurate using the exact cartridge and bullets specified by the owner. It is, in fact, a superior hunting implement. Of course, he could take an ugly, functionally inferior rifle on safari, but why would he want to if he doesn't have to?